1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the conversion of a mixture of biomass and a synthetic polymer based material in the presence of a catalyst, and more particularly to the conversion of a mixture of biomass and a synthetic polymer based material in an oxygen-poor or oxygen-free pyrolysis reactor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Pyrolysis, in particular flash pyrolysis, has been proposed as a process for converting solid biomass material to liquid products. Pyrolysis in general refers to a process in which a feedstock is heated in an oxygen-poor or oxygen-free atmosphere. If solid biomass is used as the feedstock of a pyrolysis process, the process produces gaseous, liquid, and solid products. It has been found that the liquid yield can be increased, at the expense of the gas and solid yields, by operating the pyrolysis process such that the feedstock is heated rapidly, and the reaction time is kept short. In flash pyrolysis the time for heating and reacting the biomass feedstock is on the order of seconds.
Because of the fuel quality benefits of reducing the oxygen content of biomass derived oil, it is desirable to develop improved methods/systems for biomass conversion wherein oxygen is removed from the resulting conversion products.